Snorting chocolate has come to Vancouver

DH Vancouver StaffJan 08, 2015 3:45 pm

If you’ve ever been curious about snorting chocolate, it happens to be a real thing, and it’s now being offered by a local shop.

You’ll find this curious Belgian import pastime at Vancouver’s quirky Commercial Drive Licorice Parlour. The store is home to modern treats, like quinoa waffles, cashew milk ice cream, hula hoops, a few dozen kinds of licorice, and now it’s your one stop shop for cocoa snorting.

The Licorice Parlour’s owner, Mary Jean Dunsdon (who is known as Watermelon) told The Province she has been offering snorts of chocolate since November, and she may well be the only person in Canada to do so.

The origin of chocolate snorting is credited to Belgian chocolatier Dominique Persoone, who came up with the concept of having a fine cocoa powder for snorting for a birthday party for members of the Rolling Stones (it all makes sense now, right?). The powder is shot into the nose through a mini catapult Persoone created.

Now Persoone’s finely ground ginger-mint or raspberry-mint cocoa powder is for sale by Dunsdon, who has nine of the catapults in her store.

The merits of having chocolate but not experiencing it via the mouth was discussed nearly five years ago in North America at a New York gathering of international chefs, when Persoone had “snorting kits” on hand for trying out. Persoone told the Huffington Post that “while some countries in Europe shun the [snorting] device, Italy embraced it, and the government went so far as to buy a bunch of these kits to give to kids in high school, with the campaign, Snort Cocoa, Not Coke.”

Dunsdon is also enthusiastic about the way snorters can experience the chocolate without the calories. It’s also good for clearing the sinuses. “You experience chocolate for a couple of hours,” Dunsdon told Global BC.

At two dollars a “hit,” snorting chocolate is a relatively cheap thrill, too.